


In the Changing of the Tides

by orayofsunshine



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Just roll with it guys I promise it'll be good, Mystery, Updates on Sundays, mermaid au, probably a slowish burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26445784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orayofsunshine/pseuds/orayofsunshine
Summary: A boy, a girl, and an ancient curse that connects the two of them.Anne had thought that the stories she had heard of sirens and mermaids were nothing more than fairy tales, but after an unfortunate accident and a subsequent miracle, she is forced to question everything she thought she knew.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 32
Kudos: 89





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I'm not going to post fics for a while 
> 
> Also me: But like, what if i did?

Anne loved the sea. 

She loved the tangy smell of salt and brine in the air, the cool breeze against her cheeks in the mornings and evenings as she walked home from school, the sound of the waves crashing against rocks and gulls crying overhead. The sea was a place that tickled all of her senses, and she adored it. 

She knew that if anyone saw her down on the beach, shoes and stockings discarded in a heap next to her basket full of school things, that they would surely be scandalized by her state of undress. Though she had been living and teaching in Four Winds for the better part of two years, there were still some that she knew didn’t like her. Her methods were too unorthodox, she was too gentle with the students, she was far too free spirited to efficiently mould the young minds of her pupils. She had heard every slight under the sun, but Anne thought it was all hogwash. She liked her job and did it well, and if anyone had a problem with her, they were more than welcome to tell it to her straight or keep it to themselves. 

That being said, if she wanted to make a quick diversion to take a stroll on the beach to feel the sand between her toes on her way home, she was more than welcome to do so. It was getting close to sunset and the particular stretch of beach that she was on was far from the docks and rest of town, leaving her more or less in solitude. Her fears of someone walking by and seeing her barefoot with one corner of her skirts tucked up into her belt to keep it out of the surf were slim, which was why she didn’t put too much thought into the prospect. 

Summer was quickly approaching, she could feel it in the warmth of the breeze blowing off of the ocean- and in the way her students fidgeted more and more in their seats with every day that passed. She couldn’t blame them, as much as she loved teaching, she was eager to get out of the stuffy little classroom as well to enjoy the glorious amount of sunshine that they had been gifted once April melted into May. Still, that didn’t stop the evening chill from nipping at her, forcing her to wrap her shawl tighter around her shoulders. Though she had thought she had left her clumsiness behind in her childhood, she proved herself to be wrong when she dropped the darned thing into the sand in her attempts to wrap it around herself. 

“Drat!” She swore quietly. “I fear I’ll always feel gritty with sand when I wear this thing now.” 

She grumbled to herself as she tried to shake the sand from the gauzy material, only for a heavy gust of wind to catch the fabric as she did so, pulling it from her hands and tumbling it down the beach like it was a puppet and the wind was its puppeteer. Anne huffed, marching down the beach to retrieve the finicky fabric from where it had landed on the rocks a few yards away from where she had been walking. 

“Alright, I hear you mother nature, it’s time for me to head home. I suppose Jerry will be home soon too, and he’ll be wanting supper.” She huffed to herself, hoisting her skirts up to give her more mobility as she began the trek up, down, and around the boulders to where her shawl was lying sandy and soaked. 

Her little excursion to fetch her shawl had taken her further down the beach than she had originally planned on, taking her away from the sand and gentle waves closer to the craggy cliffs where the waves beat more mercilessly against the very rocks that she was currently trying to navigate. She was constantly being misted with briny seawater from the waves crashing only a few short feet from where she was standing, soaking her skirts and making the rocks underneath her feet horrifically slick. If it had been any other shawl, she would have abandoned the thing all together, but it was not any ordinary wrap that she had worn that day, it was the one Marilla had made for her the Christmas prior- which unknowingly had been the last Christmas she had spent with the woman who had raised her before she had left earth for bigger and better places, joining her sweet, quiet brother who had left them three summers prior. The loss of both Matthew and Marilla was something that still made her heart ache, and she would be damned if she lost any relic of her life with the Cuthberts. 

“There you are, you bothersome thing!” She cried victoriously when she finally snagged the shawl up from the boulder, clutching it tightly to her chest. She could feel her heart pounding, the precarious maneuvering to get to the item coupled with the thought of losing the shawl forever had set her on edge, and all she wanted was to be home in front of the fire with a cup of tea in her hands. 

Her afternoon had certainly shaped up to be far more of an adventure than she had originally planned, that was for sure. 

With a deep breath to steady herself, she turned around to begin the trek back in the direction she had come from. 

Several things happened in quick succession once she turned around. 

The first was that a particularly large wave hit the rocks at that precise moment, dousing her with frigid seawater, turning her from slightly damp to soaked through. 

The second was that unexpected wave and shock from the cold made her stumble backwards, right into a barnacle that had made its home on one of the boulders she had been traipsing around on. She hissed in pain as she stepped on the barnacle, balancing precariously on one foot to inspect the damage, kicking herself mentally at the sight of blood oozing out of the arch of her foot.

The third, and most surprising thing out of the whole cluster of unfortunate events, was that when she looked up from her wounded foot, there was a man staring at her. 

She had no idea what he was doing or how he had even gotten there. The water was freezing and the beach had been empty the last time she had checked, but even after she blinked he was still there, ten feet away from her, bobbing up and down in the tumultuous waves as if they weren’t there at all. She shrieked in shock at the sight of him, nearly jumping out of her skin, landing hard on her injured foot. 

That was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, for when she jumped in surprise, her already unsteady feet landed on a particularly slick patch of rock, sending her tumbling down the boulders and into the frigid water, her head bouncing on one of the rocks as she slipped under the waves. 

Her mind went fuzzy as the water engulfed her, and the last thing she saw before everything went black was creamy pale skin and a flash of dark red scales. 

* * *

“Miss Shirley! Miss Shirley, can you hear me?” 

Anne groaned, her head lolling to the side as she came to her senses. 

She was cold and soaked to the bone, and her head and foot was pounding something fierce, making her feel clammy and disoriented. 

“She’s waking up, thank God!” The same voice that had pulled her from consciousness cried, relief dripping from their words.

“What ‘appened?” She groaned, daring to open her eyes. Thankfully the sun had just set, giving the earth a warm glow, and the low light was easy for her eyes to adjust to. 

“I haven’t the first clue,” The man said, who upon a moment of thought she recognized as Mr. Landry, the father of one of her students, Peter, who was there as well, standing a few feet away from his father. “We were just walking home and saw you laying here on the shore-” 

“We thought you were dead, Miss Shirley!” Her student, Peter, chimed in, looking positively horrified at the thought of stumbling upon his deceased teacher. Mr. Landry cuffed him for his statement, giving his son a dirty look. 

“Don’t say such things, Peter.” He scolded, turning back to her with a softer expression. “Can you remember what happened? Begging your pardon, but you look like you’ve lost a fight.” 

Anne sighed, letting her head fall backwards into the sand as she tried to remember what had led to her washing up on the beach. Everything was fuzzy, her memories hazy at best, and with a frustrated groan she forced herself to sit up, biting back the nausea that rushed over her. It was only once she was sitting that she looked down and saw her shawl haphazardly draped across her lap, and the memories slowly started coming back to her. 

“I was on the rocks… I must have slipped and hit my head...” She muttered, rubbing the thin fabric between her fingers gently, letting go of it completely as she remembered the most shocking detail of the whole ordeal. She gasped, her eyes going wide as she looked up from her shawl to look out over the ocean as if she could find the man that had spooked her. “There was a man! Mr. Landry, I swear to you that there was a man in the water, a-and he had a tail! Just like a fish!” 

Chalking up her nonsensical babblings to her whimsy personality and her extremely probable head injury, Mr. Landy simply nodded. “I’m sure you did, Miss Shirley. Now you best stop your worrying and calm down. Peter, help me get Miss Shirley here to the cart and we’ll take her home, then you’ll run to fetch the doctor, alright son?” 

“Yes sir.” Peter said, giving a dutiful nod before offering his arm to the young teacher.

“I’m not crazy, I promise! I know what I saw!” She said insistently, wincing as she stood on her wounded foot. 

“I’m not doubting you,” Mr. Landy said, the hint of a chuckle under his breath suggesting that he very much did doubt her. “For now you should just rest and let us get you home, alright?” 

Anne huffed, too sore and exhausted to put up a fight. She simply let the pair help her up the beach and onto the cart, and as they set off towards her house she couldn’t help but watch the waves crash against the sand, keeping her eyes peeled for a flash of red amongst the sea of blue. 


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne goes back to work despite Jerry's wishes not to, and she quickly discovers that she might have rushed her recovery just a little bit.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back? I’m sure you could wait another few days and no one would blame you.” Jerry said as Anne bustled around the kitchen making breakfast for the two of them before they left for their respective jobs. While she was bound and determined to be back on her feet after her unfortunate accident the week before, Jerry was still unsure of whether or not she was ready to be back in the races. That was why he was following her around the kitchen as she cooked, trying to take things from her hands and help her however he could, which left him with sore knuckles from where she rapped at them with her wooden spoon. 

While she and Jerry didn’t share any blood relation, he was essentially a brother to her- a younger one, actually, despite the height difference that he frequently lorded over her. They had known each other since Anne was eleven and he was ten, when she was adopted by the Cuthberts and he was hired on as a farmhand to help Matthew work the land. Though they annoyed each other to no end at times, as the two grew up their relationship became something akin to siblings, with deep love and devotion mixed with the uncanny ability to get under the other’s skin better than anyone else. 

Following Matthew’s death, Jerry had stayed at Green Gables to help Marilla, but after her death he hadn’t wanted the title to the land even though Anne had offered it to him. Instead, he joined her in Four Winds citing that he needed work and his family’s home was too crowded for him to live there any longer. At least, that was the excuse he told her. Anne knew him well enough to see through the cracks in his explanation, that even though he had a family and parents of his own, the death of the Cuthberts had rocked him to his core and losing them was like losing family. She never said anything though, and instead she opened up her home to him, happy that she did not have to grieve alone in the drafty cottage. 

Of course their arrangement brought whispers of impropriety, though they were brother and sister by everything but blood, the thought of an unmarried young man and woman living together still raised quite a fuss. Thankfully, the rumors stopped when Jerry stepped out into town a few short months after moving to Four Winds with Camille Rivet, the daughter of one of the men Jerry worked with at the docks. Anne liked Camille well enough, she was a sweet girl and an excellent cook who never hesitated to bring fresh, fragrant seafood over for them, though it did drive her mad when she and Jerry prattled on in French, completely leaving her out of the conversation. 

All in all, she was happy that Jerry had joined her in Four Winds, though she wanted to kick him in the shins for being overbearing more often than not. At the end of the day though, he was all she had left in the world, and so she never fell asleep without sending a prayer to the Lord, thanking him for Jerry’s presence. 

He had been a wreck the night of her accident on the rocks, knowing that something must have been horribly wrong when he beat her home for the evening. He had been on the verge of gathering a search party when Mr. Landry rolled up with her in tow, soaked to the bone, concussed, and delirious. Since then he had hardly let her out of his sight, tasking Camille with taking care of her during the day when he had to go to work. It had been nice the first few days when she still couldn’t put any weight on her injured foot and the nausea and headaches from her concussion were overwhelming, but after a week of bedrest she was restless and ready to get back to her normal routine. Jerry, however, was not keen on the idea. Anne knew that he was just worried for her, but his overbearance was beginning to rub her nerves raw.

“I am more than ready to go back,” Anne said, shooting him a dirty look when he took the plate she was holding from her hands to pluck the toast away from the fire and onto the plate. “I miss my students, and I think I’m beginning to go a little stir crazy here. In fact, I’m convinced that my extended amount of time lazing about has left me with bed sores.” 

Jerry snorted, raising an eyebrow at her. “Bed sores? Impossible.” 

“Then explain why my skin feels so dry and itchy!” She said with a laugh, setting down her wooden spoon to reach across her body and scratch at her shoulder for emphasis. Her flair for the dramatics proved to be a mistake on her part when Jerry picked up her discarded spoon and began stirring the pan of eggs, gently pushing her towards the table to sit. 

“I think you just need a bath. You smell sort of weird, maybe that’s why your skin feels bad.” He said, and she scoffed, reaching out to whack him on the back of the head. 

“You cad!” She said. “What a rude thing to say to a woman!” 

Jerry simply laughed, rolling his eyes at her before dumping the eggs into a serving bowl for them. “Camille is a woman, you are my sister. They are two completely separate things.” 

“Then by that logic, Beauregard is a donkey and you are just an ass. Two completely separate things.” She said, looking out of the window to see the aforementioned mule grazing outside before turning back to Jerry with a playful look.

“I wonder what your students would think if they heard you talking like that, it sounds like you work at the docks rather than a school.” Jerry quipped, prompting Anne to stick her tongue out at him. 

“I suppose I’ll just have to ask them today because I’m going back to work and that is final, Monsieur Baynard.” She said, sticking her nose in the air with a sense of finality as she reached for a piece of toast. Jerry frowned, sitting down across from her at their tiny table. 

“There’s nothing I can say that will make you change your mind, is there?” He asked, shoulders drooping in defeat. Feeling sorry for him, Anne reached across the table to squeeze his wrist lightly. 

“I’ll be fine, I’ll have my desk to sit if I get winded or tired and if things really go sour the doctor isn’t but a few minutes walk away.” She reassured, giving his hand one last squeeze before pulling her hand back across the table. “Now hurry up and eat, we’ll both be late if we keep flapping our gums.” 

Jerry snorted at the comment, the tender moment having passed just as quickly as it had come. “You sound like Marilla.” 

Anne smiled, a bittersweet feeling filling her chest at the comment. “Thank you, that is very high praise in my book.” 

Her brother gave her a smile across the table. “It should be. Now, let’s eat.” 

* * *

“Miss Shirley, you’re back!” A student yelled the moment she walked into the school house, slightly winded from the walk even though it was only three quarters of a mile. She wrote it off as lingering exhaustion from her bedrest, but didn’t have time to linger on it before she was bombarded by children, the younger ones clinging onto her happily while the older students lingered back with happy and relieved looks on their faces. 

“Of course I am! Did you really think a little bump on the noggin could keep me away?” She laughed, carefully untangling herself from the students that had latched onto her before clapping her hands together. “Now, I think we have a great deal of catching up to do, don’t we? There isn’t a moment to waste, to your seats everyone!” 

With a few quiet groans from the older students that had enjoyed their impromptu break from school the class burst into motion, taking their seats and pulling out their readers as they did first thing every morning while Anne set her things down on her desk and began arranging everything she would need to teach for the day, fully aware of the curious looks her students were giving her. 

Thankfully, the morning passed without incident and Anne was relieved when she dismissed her pupils to lunch, falling heavily into her desk chair once the schoolhouse was completely vacant. Though she would never admit it to Jerry out of fear of being told that she had been wrong, she was downright exhausted and it had only been half a day. She could have done her lessons from her desk and know that no one would think less of her for doing so, but she was stubborn and determined to get through the whole day despite how much her feet and legs ached. She liked being up and moving around the classroom while she taught, making her lessons interactive and hands on like Miss Stacey’s had been, but it seemed that she was not quite ready to be going full steam ahead just yet. 

She rubbed her temples lightly with a heavy sigh, pausing only to scratch at the dry skin on her shoulder for a moment before she leaned back in her chair and let her eyes close, trying to relax for a few moments before her students came in from their lunch break and wrought havoc once more. 

“Miss Shirley?” Came a small voice that pulled her from her resting state, forcing her to open her eyes. Little Lydia Collins, one of her younger students, stood a few feet away in front of her desk, twisting her hands nervously together. 

“What’s the matter, Lydia?” She asked, taking in her worried expression as she straightened her posture. 

“Peter’s telling everyone that you almost drowned when you got hurt,” She said, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. “Is it true that you almost died, Miss Shirley?” 

Anne scoffed, rising from her desk and pointedly ignoring the way her legs shook slightly when she stood. She quickly rounded her desk to stand in front of the little girl, pushing away her concern at how much her head spun at the simple action, and knelt down to her level. 

“Of course that’s not true, Lydia. I’m fit as a fiddle, can’t you see? Like I said this morning, a little knock on the head can’t stop me for long, now can it?” She asked, reaching out to squeeze her hand gently. Lydia thought for a moment, taking in her teacher who appeared to be in perfect health. After a pause she nodded, a satisfied smile spreading over her features. 

“No, Miss Shirley.” She said, and Anne nodded back. 

“Exactly, now why don’t you run along and enjoy the sun? I’ll be ringing the bell soon and you don’t want to waste a minute, do you?” She said with a bright smile, tugging lightly on one of the girl’s ringlets as she sent her off, waiting until the door shut behind her. Only then did Anne drop her facade, rocking from the balls of her feet onto her backside, leaning back against her desk, her fingertips finding her temples once more. Any energy she thought she had was gone after her conversation with Lydia, and she knew she would suffer for it for the remainder of the day. With a heavy sigh Anne shut her eyes, letting her head fall back against the smooth wood surface behind her, praying that the Lord would give her the strength to stay on her feet for the rest of the day. 

After a couple of minutes in prayer, several deep breaths, and a few healthy glugs of water from her jar to try and soothe her perpetually dry mouth, Anne hauled herself off of the ground and made her way towards the bell, bracing herself for what was sure to be a truly miserable afternoon. 

* * *

By the time the day was over and her students were running out of the schoolhouse, Anne felt like she could faint. She had barely remembered to tell Peter Landry to stay behind before she dismissed the students, somehow managing to settle down in her desk gracefully as he nervously approached her desk rather than plopping herself down into it like a sack of potatoes. 

“Am I in trouble, Miss Shirley?” He asked sheepishly, his eyes cast downward and his hands folded together tightly. Anne frowned, shaking her head. 

“No, Peter, you aren’t.” She said gently, hating that she had made the boy fret so much. “I only held you back today so that I could ask you to stop telling the other students about my incident. I know it was probably a scary event for you to witness, and I hate that you had to see me in such a state, but I’m right as rain now and it frightens the other students hearing about it. This whole incident is something I would very much like to put behind me, wouldn’t you agree?” 

Peter nodded fervently, his eyes wide with lingering panic of having to stay after class. “I’m sorry, Miss Shirley, everyone was asking me about it because they knew I was there and-” 

“I understand, Peter. Don’t fret about it a moment more, just keep the details to yourself from now on, alright? And if you’re frightened or upset about what happened, then talk to your parents, or someone else you trust, alright?” Anne said, offering him an encouraging smile. He nodded, still standing nervously at his spot in front of her desk. “Alright then, you may go. I’ll see you in the morning.” 

With that the boy scurried out of the room, leaving Anne blissfully alone. She took a minute to slump in her chair, collecting the last bit of resolve she possessed to shut the schoolhouse down for the day- a task that would undoubtedly use up all of the remaining energy she had. 

“How am I going to explain to Jerry how exhausted I am?” Anne lamented aloud, knowing good and well that his efforts to keep her home would only be renewed when he saw the state that she was in. She would never admit it to him, but she had pushed herself beyond her limits and far beyond what she was capable of so soon after her accident, and she was already dreading having to get up and return to school the next day. After insisting all day that she was alright, she knew that she couldn’t just disappear again, leaving her students to worry about their teacher. There was only a few weeks left until school was let out for the summer, and she would have to do her best to hold herself together until then. 

_The water will help you._

Anne inhaled sharply at the thought, sitting upright in her seat, her eyes wide at the voice that was very much _not_ hers. She looked around the room, double and triple checking that she was the only one left inside the building, and that there weren’t any older students lingering trying to pull a prank of their teacher. But no, there were not any students or anybody besides her. She was alone, and yet someone had still spoken to her. 

Anne sighed, shaking her head back and forth in an attempt to clear her mind. 

“I’m just exhausted, that’s all.” She mumbled to herself as she stood from her desk, bracing herself for a moment to adjust to her head spinning before she was able to begin gathering her things. “A little rest, and I’ll be right as rain. I just need a little more rest.” 

That was what she continued telling herself as she made her way home, the mantra playing over and over in her mind though she wasn’t completely convinced that it would help at all. Even though she wasn’t ready to acknowledge it yet, she knew deep in her heart what would help her, what would take everything that she was feeling away. It was a seductive thought, but every time it tried to sneak into her head she forced it out, fighting against her own subconscious. It had been a long day, and she was not ready to think about anything more than the tall glass of water she was going to drink when she got home, followed shortly by the nap that she would take until she had to get up and make her and Jerry dinner. 

Anne huffed. Her day was long from over even though she felt like she needed it to end hours before, but still she took the long way home to avoid walking by the ocean, knowing that it was an unwise decision to do so, even though it made the trek that much more miserable. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I know the first few chapters are setting the stage more than anything, but just bear with me and we'll have some more action (and curly headed men whose name rhymes with Bilbert Glythe) make an appearance very soon! 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who left a comment on the prologue, it makes me happy seeing y'all's excitement! I love seeing what y'all think, so feel free to drop a comment if you'd like! 
> 
> See y'all next week!


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne is plagued with dreams of the ocean, and as hard as she tries to resist its pull, she can't ignore its call.

The dreams started two weeks after her accident, and every night she was surrounded by the sea. 

It was like it was calling to her, beckoning her to the great depths of mystery with open and waiting arms. It all seemed so real, she could feel the cool water against her skin, the press and pull of the tides on her body, but it didn’t scare her. Even though she was submerged in it and never surfaced, she wasn’t frightened by it. No, not one bit. She welcomed it like an old friend. 

In her dreams, she also saw _him_. 

Hazel eyes, long eyelashes, pale skin wrapped over lean muscle. Dark hair suspended in every direction around him, bobbing in the current. A broad chest and sharp hip bones that melted into the deep red scales of a strong, sleek tail, just like the stuff of fairy tales. Warm, firm hands cupping her jaw, pulling her in close. Full, rosy lips meeting hers. 

Anne always woke up with a start at that, her mouth dry and her heart pounding in her chest, struggling to wrap her mind around the recurring dream. She longed for the ocean, it’s pull inexplicable yet undeniable. 

She didn’t think she could stay away, even if she wanted to. 

* * *

“And where do you think you’re going?” Jerry asked as she stepped onto the porch, looking up from where he was lacing his work boots to give her a curious look. 

“On a walk?” Anne said slowly, raising an eyebrow at him as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you have a problem with that, Monsieur Baynard?” 

Jerry rolled his eyes at her, finishing his task before standing to his full height to look down on her. It was clearly an intimidation tactic, one she saw straight through, leaving it totally ineffective. 

“Where are you going to walk?” He asked. Anne huffed up at him. 

“I was going to have a nice little stroll to the beach, then I was going to read for a while. I would ask for your permission, but seeing as you are neither my father nor my husband, I have no reason to and you have no authority to make me stay.” She said, sticking her nose in the air. With that she turned and marched down the porch steps, ignoring him when he called after her. 

He caught up with her in a few short strides, a stormy look on his face. 

“Why don’t you wait until Cami gets here, then go?” He suggested, and Anne sighed. 

Camille had come over nearly every day since school had let out for the summer, and as much as she enjoyed spending time with the sweet girl, she felt more like a nanny than a friend at that point. 

“I thought I might give her the day off.” She said snobbily, and Jerry rolled his eyes. 

“Anne, believe it or not, she likes spending time with you.” He said, matching her pace when she sped up, and she hated that he only had to lengthen his stride a small amount to keep up with her. 

“And I enjoy spending time with her, but frankly, she feels like a watchdog, Jerry. I’m a grown woman, and if I would like to spend the morning _alone_ by the shore, then I can.” She said, trying to keep her tone and temper in check. 

“You do realize that you almost died, right?” Jerry snapped as he stopped suddenly, a stormy look on his face. She took another few steps before realizing that he had stopped walking and turned back to face him. 

“What?” 

“Last month, when you fell and hit your head?” Jerry said, even though she knew good and well what he was referring to. It had been her only brush with death recently, thank goodness. “You should have died, Anne. The current there is strong, it should have swept you under and kept you there. I don’t know how you washed up on shore the opposite direction that it was going in, but you did and it’s a miracle you’re alive right now. I wish you would recognize that.” 

Anne looked at him blankly for a moment. She hadn’t known that the current was going in the opposite direction of where she had been found, and there was no logical way she should have washed up at all. 

_Unless there was someone else there to get you on shore._

The thought made her blood go cold in her veins. She had told Jerry, Camille, and Mr. Landry about the man she saw in the water- or the half-man at least. She knew what she had seen, that he had a tail where there should have been legs and feet, but no one believed her. They thought she was just going crazy, and that her imagination had taken over to give some sort of explanation to the traumatic event she had gone through. She stopped talking about it when she realized that everyone thought she was crazy, but she knew in her heart that her eyes had not been deceiving her, and Jerry’s statement only gave her more proof. 

“I promise I’m not going in the water, Jerry.” She said, reaching out to take his hand in hers, squeezing it lightly to try and reassure him. “I won’t even go near it, if that will make you feel better. I’ll just sit on my blanket for a little while, then I’ll go meet Cami for tea. How does that sound?” 

Jerry sighed, weighing her compromise in his head for a moment before squeezing her hand back. “Alright, I’ll stop by her house to let her know to expect you. Just... please be careful. I don’t think I could handle losing you too Anne, not after losing Matthew and Marilla as quickly as we did.” 

Anne frowned, her heart aching at the mention of her beloved guardians. She felt a bit selfish for not having considered Jerry’s motivations behind his protective streak, but his explanation made a great deal of sense once he said it aloud. 

“I’m sorry Jerry,” She said, her shoulders drooping. “I didn’t realize-” 

“It’s alright.” He said, squeezing her hand one last time before dropping it. “I need to go before I’m late, but be safe, alright?” 

Anne smiled, giving him a little salute as they went their separate ways. “I will, and I’ll see you tonight.” 

* * *

If she had thought that the pull towards the ocean was strong in her dreams, it was nothing compared to being beside it. From the moment it came into view on the horizon it was like it was calling her to it, taking over her body and her limbs, pushing her towards it whether or not she wanted to go. 

The damning thing about it was that she desperately wanted the water, she _needed_ it. She did not have to be forced to follow the call within her that she had heard without ceasing for the better part of a month. Once she hit the sand she quickly spread out her picnic blanket, sitting down to rid herself of her stockings and shoes before plunging her feet into the sun warmed sand, letting her head tip backwards to smell the salty sea air that surrounded her. 

_Go to the water._

She inhaled sharply at the intrusive thought, her head snapping upwards as panic replaced the blood in her veins. While there was nothing inherently dangerous about the water itself, Anne had made a promise to Jerry that she had meant, yet the voice in her head that called her towards the water was a voice that was distinctly not hers. 

_Go._

“No!” She said out loud, scaring herself with the force in which she had yelled the single word, fighting with the voice in her head. Thankfully, no one was around to witness what surely looked like a mental breakdown that would have guaranteed her a one way ticket to an institution. 

“I’m losing my mind,” Anne laughed to herself, letting her head fall into her hands. “I’m going to be sent off to an insane asylum, bound and gagged for the rest of my life! It’s one thing to be as imaginative as I am- that’s strange enough! But if people knew I was hearing voices? They’d think I was a lunatic for sure!” 

_Go to the water. It needs you._

Anne snorted, laying backwards on the blanket, spreading her arms out to feel the smooth cotton under her fingertips as she stared up into the bright blue sky. 

“It needs me? I think _I_ need it infinitely more than it needs me!” She scoffed, thinking about the myriad of curious quirks she had developed since her tumble at the rocks. The constant dry mouth and insatiable thirst, the aching feet and legs, the dreams, the voices, the itchy skin and briney smell she carried no matter how hard she scrubbed her skin. It was a puzzling mix of symptoms, but she knew without a doubt in the world that her accident was what brought them upon her. 

Anne sighed, letting her eyes slide closed. She had hoped that her unfortunate side effects would alleviate as time went on, but to her displeasure they had only gotten worse. She was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired while also having to pretend like everything was alright so that Jerry wouldn’t worry about her and force Camille’s company on her more than it already was.   
She let herself get lost in her thoughts, the sun warming her skin and the repetitive crash of the waves against the shore the most alluring lullaby. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but she was so tired and so comfortable that she didn’t even realize that she had drifted off into an easy slumber. 

She opened her eyes a little while later feeling more refreshed than she had in awhile, sitting up and stretching languidly, working the lingering stiffness from her joints. Getting her wits about her after what had been a truly blissful nap, Anne noticed that the sun was high in the sky and she was almost uncomfortably warm, signalling to her that she had slept the whole morning away. She huffed, pulling her stockings and shoes back on quickly, miffed by the fact that she had not even opened her book and yet it was still time for her to go, lest she worry Camille by not showing up for tea. 

“Be patient with me, Mr. Darcy,” Anne muttered to herself as she shoved her battered copy of _Pride and Prejudice_ into her basket, followed quickly by the blanket she had been snoozing on. “I promise I haven’t forgotten about you.” 

With her things gathered up, she allowed herself one last look at the ocean before setting off towards Camille’s house on the far side of town, humming to herself as she went. Her nap had done wonders for her constitution, and she walked with a spring in her step, feeling lighter than she had in weeks. She could just barely make out the sturdy cottage that belonged to the Rivet family in the distance when she heard her name be called from behind her, and she was quick to turn around, puzzled when she saw nobody there. 

“ _Anne!”_ She heard again, this time louder and more hysterical. Anne did a full turn, looking frantically for whoever was calling out to her, her distress growing infinitely at her inability to find the source of the voice. 

Suddenly her whole world was tilted on its axis and Anne woke up with a jolt, her heart pounding in her chest as she nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked down into the wide green eyes of Camille Rivet, who looked just as frazzled as Anne felt. 

“Camille…?” Anne said slowly, looking around to see that she was still on the beach and not on the path towards the other woman’s house as she had thought she was. Had the whole thing been some sort of dream? 

“Are you alright, Anne?” Camille asked, looking up at her as if she had grown a second head. “When you didn’t show up for tea I was worried about you, so I came looking and then when I saw you here I was calling for you, yet you didn’t turn around. It was like you hadn’t heard me at all... were you going to get into the water?” 

“The water?” Anne asked, her confusion growing with every moment that passed. She realized then that she was not on her blanket any longer, but she was only a scant few feet from where the waves were crashing against the sand. She had been so close to it, yet totally unaware. “I didn’t…” 

“Poor thing, you must have gotten too hot, and that’s why you’re all confused now. It’s quite a warm day, wouldn’t you agree?” Camille cut in, wrapping a dainty hand around Anne’s arm, gently tugging her up the beach towards her blanket. Anne nodded numbly, her mind still swimming. She wished she was dreaming again, because now that she was in the land of consciousness her aches and pains had returned full force, somehow even worse than they had been before she had fallen asleep. She cast a look over her shoulder as Camille guided her towards her things, longing for the sea’s embrace more than ever before. 

_The water will help you._

Anne sighed, feeling like she could cry for the relief that she knew would come. She didn’t know why or how it would help, but she knew without a doubt that she needed the water- perhaps more than she needed air to breathe.

But she had promised Jerry that she would stay away, and despite the pull that she felt, she couldn’t bear to put Jerry through more grief than what he had already been through.She didn’t know what would happen if she actually got in the water, and she did not want to think about it. She would keep resisting until the call went away, no matter how long it took. 

* * *

“Cami told me that you almost went into the water today.” Jerry said casually as they ate dinner that night, the fish Camille had sent home with Anne turning to sawdust in her mouth at his words. Anne swallowed what was in her mouth, the bite uncomfortably large and only a little painful to swallow. 

“I didn’t mean to,” She said with a strained cough as she finished swallowing. “Did she tell you that I was sleepwalking when she found me?” 

Jerry snorted, giving her a look that suggested that he didn’t believe her. Anne frowned, her hackles rising as she prepared for a fight with the man. She had been feeling pent up and anxious since Camille had pulled her from her dream, pulling her away from the waves that were practically singing to her, their song melodic and soothing. 

“I’m not lying to you, what reason would I have to go into the ocean, Jerry? I was fully dressed, and I promised you that I wouldn’t. When was the last time I broke a promise to anyone?” She asked, raising an eyebrow at him across the table. 

Not having a good enough retort to her question Jerry took another bite of his dinner, his eyebrows drawn together as he thought hard on something. Anne waited nervously for whatever he would have to say next, unable to stop herself from fidgeting nervously, scratching at her shoulder to have something to pass the time. 

In a very un-Jerry like move, he didn’t say anything for the rest of supper, leaving them in a stifling silence. Anne fidgeted nervously as they ate, the tension almost too much on top of her already constant physical discomfort. Finally, after they both finished eating Jerry finally spoke as he stood from the table, gathering their dirty plates to take to the basin. Anne stood up with the intention of gathering the rest of the dishes, only for Jerry to shake his head and reach for them first. 

“I’ll clean up, you should go rest.” 

There was something in his tone that almost dared her to fight back, to try and defy what was a thinly veiled command. They were professionals at squabbling back and forth to the point that Anne sometimes sought to get under his skin just to have something to pass the time, but she knew that he was cross with her and pushing back would only cause an explosive argument that she didn’t have the energy for. 

“Alright, then.” She said, her voice quiet and stiff. “I suppose I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight.” 

With that she marched down the hallway to her bedroom, closing it quietly behind her. She wanted to scream or punch a pillow, anything to alleviate the anxiety that had settled in her chest, making it hard for her to breathe. Similar to her will to fight back against Jerry’s stern behavior with her, Anne didn’t even have the energy to try and rid herself of the anxiety that plagued her. Instead she set about getting ready for bed, taking her hair down, brushing it, and braiding it in a single plait down her back. Then she stripped out of her clothes, folding them up neatly and letting them lay over her chair, telling herself that she would put them away properly in the morning. With a nightgown tugged over her head, Anne let herself fall down onto her mattress, her body weary and heavy after another long day. 

Pushed to the peak of frustration, exhaustion and confusion over her situation, Anne couldn’t help the tears that sprung up in her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she hid her face in the sleeve of her nightgown. If she was being honest with herself, she was scared. She wanted answers that she knew she would most likely never have about the strange condition that was impacting every aspect of her life, and she was tired of it. 

“What is wrong with me?” Anne whimpered into the humid night as she sat on the cusp of sleep, her voice small and defeated. She drifted off to sleep a moment later, her cheeks still wet with tears, praying that answers or relief would come. Then, right before she slipped into unconsciousness she heard the seductive whisper of the sea call out to her, though it sounded more like an old friend beckoning her home. 

_The water will give you answers._

* * *

Much later that night, long after Beauregard the donkey had been put away in the stable and Jerry had put out the lanterns and gone to bed, Anne rose from her bed and walked out of the house on light, nimble feet that did not make a single old floorboard creak or groan. She didn’t bother with shoes, or her dressing gown, her eyes glazed over and set straight ahead. In fact, she wasn’t aware that she had left the house at all. She was having the most pleasant dream about sun warmed skin, shining hazel eyes, and dark, inky curls, completely unaware that her body was following the call it so desperately craved to give into. 

In her dream she was lying on her picnic blanket by the shore, her head propped up by her hand, laughing at a joke the tall, handsome stranger had told her. His face was fuzzy in her mind’s eye, as if distorted by something- but she was not cognizant of the fact that such a thing was strange. In fact that was how he always appeared to her, a half formed apparition that she could not have fully depicted even if she wanted to. Even if she realized that the image of him wasn’t quite complete. Instead, all she noticed was what she was aware of: his soft skin, the dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose, the playful glint in his eye as he leaned in close. 

In her dream she was lying down, but in real life she was very much not sitting still. In fact, she was marching down the beach with single minded focus, her glazed over eyes dead set on the churning waves in front of her. 

_Closer._

_Go to the water._

_The water will help you._

_The water will give you answers._

The only thing that Dream-Anne and Real-Anne had in common was their pounding heart, beating in time but for two completely different reasons. Dream-Anne’s heart was pounding in her chest as the stranger drew her into his warm embrace, his calloused, work-worn hands tenderly grabbing her chin in his grasp.

“Come find me.” He whispered, his breath fanning across her lips, so close that their noses brushed with every small movement. 

Then, at the same time that the stranger’s lips met Dream-Anne’s, Real-Anne plunged underneath the dark waves, and she was left breathless and drowning in both. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who commented on last chapter! I love hearing what you guys have to say and your predictions as to what's going to happen next :) See you guys next week!


	4. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne finds herself in an unfamiliar environment, and meets someone she had previously known only in her dreams.

When Anne was fourteen, Matthew and Marilla took her to the beach for the first time. 

It was a magical afternoon, one that sparked her love of the ocean, and that day was a memory that she held close to her heart. One particular moment of that afternoon that she still giggled thinking about was when she ran down the beach, stripping off her clothes as she went in an effort to get into the ocean as quickly as possible. Marilla had shouted at her to stop, that she would ruin her clothes by throwing them into the sand, but Anne had a single-minded focus: enjoying the splendor of the vast sea in front of her. Down to her underclothes, she dove underneath the dark waves, bobbing up out of the water a moment later with a laugh of complete and utter bliss. Her carefree happiness ended shortly after when a wave hit her from behind, knocking her off of her feet and discombobulating her completely. She had tried to open her eyes to set herself to rights, unsure of which way was up or which way was down, her legs kicking rapidly to try and find the ocean floor so that she could orient herself again. Her efforts were futile, the briny sea water did nothing but burn her eyes, giving her no information as to where she was. It was a moment of pure and utter panic, one that ended when Matthew scooped her up out of the water, worry written all over his wrinkled features. 

Anne had laughed then, exclaiming that she had forgotten that she couldn’t swim in her excitement. Once the panic had cleared Matthew’s belly laugh joined hers, then he set about teaching her how to swim 

When Anne came to- completely unaware that she had left the comfort of her bed and her lips still tingling from the kiss in her dream- she was being tossed around underneath the surf, and she was not laughing this time. She wasn’t sure which way was up or which way was down, and she knew that she needed to find the surface or else she would die under the frigid water. 

Or would she? 

Though her panic was all consuming, she couldn’t help but notice that her lungs were not burning at the lack of air, and her head was not spinning with the need to breathe. She slowly opened her eyes, looking around to try and get her bearings. Instead of the salt burning her eyes as it had years before, or only seeing a hazy outline of everything, her vision was crystal clear and what she saw ripped a scream from her throat. 

* * *

He had been trying to rest when he heard the scream. Trying, because he had not truly rested since he had been damned to a life under the waves, not when there were bigger, stronger, and faster predators to watch out for. He had learned the hard way that his existence was one of survival and little else, and he was tired of it in more ways than one. 

Usually it was quiet down under, which was why the piercing shriek made him jump out of his skin, making him bang his head painfully on the top of the small grotto he had taken up residence in since he had arrived at...wherever he was. It was hard to determine where exactly he was and how close he was to being home, or at least what home had been to him once upon a time. He wasn’t sure what waited for him whenever he made it back, or if he would make it back at all. There was no way of knowing how long he had been gone, it was hard to keep track of time underneath, and it wasn’t like he could just surface and ask a random passerby what year it was. His best bet was asking others that he came across (a rare occurrence) and hope that they had been turned after he had been. He had never been so lucky to get the answers he wanted. At any rate, it had been a long while since he had even seen anyone else, which was why when a shriek pulled him from his fitful rest, it was startling, to say the least. 

There was one thing he knew for certain though, even in his hazy state: that shriek had been someone else like him, and every predator and prey within ten meters had just heard the same thing he had. Knowing that meant whoever it was had a target on their back, he took off like a shot out of his grotto, hoping that he got there before anything else did. 

* * *

Anne had lived a lot of life in her nineteen years, some of it pleasant and a large majority of it not. She had spent a great deal of her time with her head in the clouds, imagining a world that was kind and fanciful, even though it had shown her over and over again that it was not. Yes, her imagination was grand, but one thing Anne Shirley knew more than anything was that she could trust herself to know what was daydreams and what was reality. 

After her accident, when she had insisted to everyone around her that there was a man with the tail of a fish in the water, she had been written off over and over again as hysterical or over imaginative, that she had made up the man to cope with the trauma that she had endured. It was frustrating to say the least, because even though it sounded absolutely impossible, she knew what she had seen and she knew that her eyes had not deceived her. 

That was why when she opened her eyes to see a tail where her legs should have been, she couldn’t help but shriek in surprise. She stared at it with an open mouth long after the scream had died (later she would realize that the water she was breathing in and out soothed the ache in her chest that she had written off as a summer cold, as if it was what was supposed to in her lungs rather than the air she had been breathing, but she was still too preoccupied with the fact that she had a  _ tail  _ to fully comprehend that she was not drowning). Slowly, as if she were frightened by it, she reached out to brush her hand against the smooth scales, withdrawing her hand quickly when the tail-  _ her  _ tail, twitched at the featherlight touch. It was the queerest feeling, one that sent her mind reeling even more than it had been. She had felt the touch just as she would have had it been her real legs, and without a second thought she reached for the hem of her nightgown, rucking it up to where scales seamlessly turned into pale skin, almost translucent in the hazy moonlight. 

“Are you alright, Miss?” 

The voice surprised her, and if she had been less concerned with the fact that she currently was half fish, she would have noticed the prickling of her senses telling her that something had been approaching her. She had been caught unawares though, and in her shock of hearing a human voice in the cold depths, she screamed again. 

A hand was slapped over her mouth after barely a peep, her eyes going wide as they focused on the person in front of her. If her mouth hadn’t been covered by his hand, her jaw would have dropped. In front of her was the man that had plagued her dreams for the past month, his hazel eyes filled with concern and his dark hair bobbing loosely in the current. 

“Pardon me, but you have to stop screaming or you’re going to attract unsavory company, Miss.” He said, his voice low and quiet, as if someone else were listening in on the conversation. Anne huffed, her eyebrows drawing together as she shoved him away, realizing what a scandalous position he had put them into. 

“I knew you were real.” She said matter-of-factly, drifting backwards a few feet, putting distance between the two of them. The man’s features twisted in confusion, his eyebrows drawing together as if he didn’t know what she was talking about. Anne huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “A month ago I lost my shawl on the rocks just down the beach from here, and you were staring at me when I turned around. In fact,  _ you  _ were the reason I fell into the water and hit my head in the first place! You’ve brought me a world of trouble, I’ll have you know.” 

She watched as his face turned from confusion to recognition. He lit up slightly as he remembered the incident, only for it to falter at her accusation of bringing her trouble. 

“What on earth are you talking about? I saved your life!” 

“A life that wouldn’t need saving if you hadn’t spooked me so horribly. And now look,” She cried, gesturing wildly to her tail. “I’m a fish! And not just any fish, but an  _ ugly _ fish!” 

The man snorted, an eyebrow lifting. He was tempted to point out the fact that if she called their kind  _ fish _ in front of others, she might make them cross, but she was too busy going on her rant and he was too entertained to stop her. He also fully disagreed with her in her statement that she was ugly. Though he had gotten a decent look at her during their first meeting when he had pulled her out of the water after her tumble on the rocks, his second inspection held the same conclusion as the first: she was a beautiful woman. Though she was not the picture of traditional beauty (or maybe she was, it had been awhile since he was up to date with the latest aesthetic trends of society), he thought she was quite lovely with her pale skin, wide eyes, fiery hair and the universe of freckles scattered across her face.

“I haven’t the first clue what you’re talking about.” He said, earning another groan from her as she rolled her eyes at him. 

“One would think if I were to become a mythical creature, I would at least be a beautiful one. But no, the fates have played yet another cruel trick on me. Just look at me! It’s  _ pink _ !” 

The man hummed, observing her tail in the pale moonlight. He wasn’t sure what caused or influenced one's coloring when they turned, or if there was a cause at all. But out of all things to get frazzled over upon realizing that they were no longer fully human, the color was not something most people worried about. He wondered idly why the color bothered her at all, it wasn’t a garish shade in the slightest, in fact it was quite lovely, a pale, rosy color that made her look more ethereal and dainty. 

“It’s not-” He started to retort, only to be cut short when something- he wasn’t sure what- prickled at his senses. He was reminded that they were still out in the open and all he knew was that he did  _ not  _ want to stick around and see what was coming to join their little soiree. “We need to go, now.” 

Anne scoffed. “Excuse me, but you’re a complete stranger, and I need to figure out how to get home before sunrise before my brother wakes up and finds me gone. I’m not going anywhere with-  _ hey _ !” 

The man seized her wrist, holding it firmly enough that she could wrench it from his grasp but not so tight that he was hurting her, and began pulling her away from where they had been talking. For a moment she was distracted by how effortlessly she swam through the water, her tail propelled her along swiftly making it easy to keep up with the stranger that was pulling her God knows where. 

“Let go of me!” She shouted, whacking at the arm that was holding her. 

“Will you please just be quiet for one minute? If you were, you would be able to tell that something’s coming for us, and I’d rather not get into a scuffle tonight. I’ve never been one to deny a woman what she truly wants, so if you’d truly like me to leave you to deal with it, I’d be more than happy to leave you behind.” He snapped, glaring at her as they halted to a stop. Anne, shocked at the sharp tone that was a far cry from the kind, playful one he had held initially, took a moment to be still and assess her surroundings. It only took a moment of looking out into the murky darkness of the ocean around them to become aware of the tingling in her senses, making her aware of the large presence that was still following them. Her eyes grew wide, and with a frightened look in the man’s direction he was off again, tugging her along much more willingly than she had been before. 

“We’re almost there,” He said quietly over his shoulder after a few minutes of swimming in silence, the only sound being their rushed breathing. Anne simply nodded, only for her nightgown, which had been billowing cumbersomely in the water, to get stuck on a tree branch that had long since gotten stuck in the muddy seafloor. She yelped in pain as her arm was wrenched from the man’s grasp, her hands falling to the fabric to try and yank it free. The man thankfully did not leave her behind, falling into place beside her. He huffed, glancing up to the depths from which they had come, as if gauging how close the predator was behind them. He looked back to her with a sheepish look. 

“Please forgive me for this, Miss.” 

And with that he was pulling a small bone knife from a sheath on his forearm that she had not noticed before, too preoccupied with her own plight to truly take in the man that she had come into company with. She didn’t have time to process his apology, or why he would be making it in the first place, before his knife was cutting through the offending piece of fabric, freeing her at the expense of her favorite nightgown. She didn’t have time to lament the loss before she was being tugged along again, and after a short distance he tugged her into a little grotto, pressing her back against the cool stone, holding a finger to his lips to silence any protests before she was able to make them. He held the knife in his other hand, poised and ready to be used should he need it. 

Anne prayed that he wouldn’t need it. 

In the still silence of the grotto she could feel the entire ocean around her. She was all too aware of the large presence that was getting closer and closer to the mouth of the cave, pausing there just outside the entrance for a few heartstopping moments before it fled in the direction it had come from, leaving behind the feeling of the other creatures in the area, a group of small swimming things above them, and the clam beds not too far from the grotto. It was almost sensory overload, especially with the feel of warm, bare skin pressed against hers. 

With a sigh of relief that they had evaded whatever had been chasing them, the man backed away and put a respectable distance between them. Only then, knowing that they were safe, did he allow himself to relax, but only a little bit. 

“What was that chasing us?” She asked, her eyes wide. She was trembling slightly, most likely from the tumultuous night she was having, and he couldn’t help but feel sympathetic for her. 

Wishing he could give her a better answer, he shrugged. “I haven’t the first clue. Something big, but you know that just as well as I do.” 

“Who are you?  _ What _ are you?” She asked next, surveying him up and down, her gaze lingering on his bare skin for a moment more than what would have been considered polite. She tore her eyes away quickly when she realized what she was doing, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. He had been modest at one point too, when he had first gotten the curse, but those days had long since passed. 

“I think a better question would be what are  _ we _ , since I’m not the only one with scales down here.” He teased, flicking her tails with his. She twitched at the touch, still unused to the big, heavy limb rather than her two legs. 

“That didn’t answer my question.” She said, giving him a withering look. 

“There’s different names for us, depending on who you ask. Merfolk, sirens, kelpies, ocean nymphs… I don’t think anyone knows for sure. We just...are what we are, I suppose.” He explained, having gleaned only a little bit of information about their kind in the past five years. Even the oldest people he had come across in his travels had only known so much, scraps of information gathered over the course of a long, tiring lifetime. Most, if not all, of it was rumors. There was no telling what they knew was even correct, and that was the damning thing about the curse that he had found himself under. 

Anne nodded slowly, her mind spinning with unanswered questions. 

“Who are you?” 

“Gilbert,” He said with an easy smile, extending his hand outward to her. She took it carefully, jumping slightly at how warm his skin was against hers. “And you are?” 

“Anne.” She said, not supplying her last name seeing that he hadn’t supplied his. She shook his hand only for a brief moment before pulling hers away quickly. Gilbert nodded, his smile never leaving his face. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Anne. Say, what year is it?” 

Anne’s face twisted up in confusion. “How do you not know what year it is?” 

Gilbert snorted. “I can’t exactly keep a calendar down here, or pop up to the surface and ask your friendly village fisherman to tell me. I’d be skinned and put in a museum before I could even finish my sentence.” 

Anne hummed, feeling a little foolish for asking in the first place. She supposed that he made a lot of sense. “It’s July of 1902.” 

Gilbert exhaled slowly, sinking down to the floor of the grotto in disbelief. Anne watched as he did so, feeling a little concerned for the near-stranger. He looked lost in thought, completely consumed by it actually, and she knew that it would be rude to pull him from whatever had made him withdraw inwards so much. 

Instead she sunk to the ground as well, smoothing her nightgown over her lap, knowing that it was going to be good only for rags once she had gotten back home. It was soaked through, muddy, and ripped from her unfortunate tangle with the tree branch. She sighed, a little put out that it had been her favorite one and it had been ripped clean up to her hip with no hope of being mended. Her walk home would be absolutely miserable. 

She perked up at the thought, remembering that even though she was currently sans legs, she would need that to change so that she could get home before Jerry woke up. 

“I need to go.” She said, her hair floating around her as her head snapped up. Gilbert, drawn from his thoughts at her outburst, gave her a quizzical look. 

“What do you mean, you need to go?” 

Anne crossed her arms over her chest, her panic morphing into frustration. “My brother will have kittens if he wakes up and I’m not home. He’s been very protective since my accident last month, so as fun as this little adventure has been, I need to get home before the sun is up.” 

Gilbert’s look of confusion only grew deeper. “It pains me to say it, but you won’t be going home.” 

“And why is that? Have I come under some sort of life debt since you drug me who knows where to avoid whatever was chasing us a moment ago? Will you be keeping me prisoner then?” Anne scoffed, not understanding what the man in front of her was getting at. He was strange, and rough around the edges, and she wasn’t sure how much he liked him. At any rate, she greatly preferred the version of him in her dreams to the real thing. 

Gilbert was feeling the same way about the perplexing redhead. She was loud and clumsy, and was far too concerned with herself than surviving in the harrowing life she had just found herself in. Truthfully, he knew that it would be best for him to wash his hands of her as quickly as possible, or else they would both wind up dead as a result of her foolishness. He also knew that that was his survival instincts talking, not the gentlemanly manners that his father had instilled in him. If he was his old self, he wouldn’t have dreamed of leaving her alone, vulnerable and curious as to what was going on around her. Part of him still felt that way, feeling slightly guilty that he wanted to abandon her. But he was not his old self. Somewhere in the five odd years since he had fallen under the curse, he had slowly started losing sight of who he had been. He was no longer the bright-eyed and curious sixteen year old that had set out on the ocean, seeking purpose and adventure after his father’s death. No, that boy had died the night he tumbled over the deck of the  _ Primrose,  _ never to be seen again. 

Now, he was a hardened young man, just three months shy of turning twenty two, and he was not sure who he was anymore. 

“You don’t owe me a life debt.” He said flatly, leaning back against the cool stone walls of the grotto. Anne seemed to relax at his words, though Gilbert felt slightly guilty at the fact that he was about to give her much worse news than her owing him a life debt. 

“Then why can’t I leave?” 

“Because,” Gilbert said slowly. “That afternoon when you fell and hit your head, I had to pass on the curse to you in order to save your life. I don’t know why you didn’t turn immediately, but now that you have, there isn’t any going back.” 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd we've finally (officially) met Gilbert! Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this chapter, and I'll see you guys next week!

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is going to be different from some of my other fics, but I've been sitting on this idea for a while and I'm super excited to share it with y'all! I'll be updating every Sunday, so see you next week! Thanks for reading, and feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you think!


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